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Emily Dickinson Romanticism

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don't believe one single Dickinson poem seems to embody the concept of the Romanticism movement. Although she makes references to nature in her poems as well as certainly letting her feelings and views pour out through each line, Dickinson was more of a Realist writer. Realists rejected Romanticism starting in the 1850s. A number of works represent real people and situations and were not above showing the negative aspects of life. Dickinson's poetry was full of rebellion and went against the style of writing that was most prevalent during her life time. The reason I think Dickinson's poetry does not seem to illustrate the idea of Romanticism can possibly be seen in "They shut me up in Prose."
"They shut me up in Prose...because they like me "still" can represent …show more content…

During the mid 1800s, Romanticism was almost becoming an underground movement, like it was being shut away by rebelling Realists. This line is a darker mirror image of that. Dickinson was writing about her bleak reclusivity in a very non Romantic, flowery way. She was already writing a style of poetry ahead of her time, so one could argue she herself is rejecting the concept of Romanticism. "Still Could themself have peeped...They might as well have lodged a Bird." Here's where one could say she's possibly a Romantic in disguise and that she was just experimenting with her writing, thus leading to her rising Realist peers rejecting a sub style of their own. However, even though Dickinson alludes to nature here, it seems like a spoof of Romanticism as she doesn't describe the bird in a cheerful way. She's comparing her wild mind to the movements of a bird. She's itching to spread her own wings and saying her way of thinking can't be locked up. And during the last stanza, she's seems to be saying there her "Captivity," is a

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